Turquoise Trading in Mesoamerica

A new discovery points towards a much smaller trade linkage between the American Southwest and the Mesoamerican civilizations than was previously supposed. Prior belief was that the vast quantity of turquoise found in the Mesoamerican region must have come from mines in the American Southwest. Now it appears that the turquoise is instead from currently lost shallow surface mines inside the region, where it was regularly used as religious, funerary, and hierarchical decoration.